If you’re still looking for plans to celebrate the New Year look no further than what the National Hockey League—NHL to their friends—has been doing for the last few years. The league takes ice hockey outdoors to its natural habitat, as they play a game on New Year’s Day—this year the fun takes place in Washington, DC.

They bring the rink, they bring the ice, and well they pretty much bring everything else needed to take the show on the road. The preparations are well underway, and they even have a time lapse camera set up so that you can check out the progress. This year hockey comes to another baseball stadium, as Nationals Park is where the Chicago Blackhawks will take on the Washington Capitals beginning at around 1pm, ET.

It sounds like the set-up for a lame joke, but instead it's what actually transpired today on a US Airways shuttle flight from Washington DC to New York-LGA.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge had traveled with Kate to New York City, but had an appointment in the am today with President Obama down in DC. There was no private jet on hold; while Kate stayed in NYC at The Carlyle Hotel, William boarded a scheduled US Airways flight around 8am, bound for Washington DC's Reagan National Airport (DCA) and convenient to his appointment at The White House.

The news these last few days has featured much about the boundaries and challenges for the future of travel, and how space is not only important for transportation, but imagination. Altogether it has reminded us of a famous quote from Pan Am's Juan Trippe:

Mass travel by air - made possible in the jet age - may prove to be more significant to world destiny than the atom bomb. For there can be no atom bomb potentially more powerful than the air tourist, charged with curiosity, enthusiasm, and good will, who can roam the four corners of the world, meeting in friendship and understanding the people of other nations and races.

Trippe's office globe, on which he planned Pan Am's route expansion, has been preserved within the Smithsonian's archives. Visitors may see it, along with other Pan Am historical items, in the "America by Air" exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.

We’re sorry to do this to you, as we certainly recognize that it’s only the middle of October; however, it’s time to start thinking about Christmas and all the associated holiday happenings. That’s especially the case if you’re looking to visit Washington, DC to take in the annual tree lighting—‘cause now’s the time to register for a chance to grab some tickets.

The folks over at the National Park Service are planning to fire up the lights for the first time during the 92nd annual National Christmas Tree Lighting over at President's Park. The seasonal shindig will take place this year on Thursday, December 4, beginning at 5pm.

There’s some new goodies and treasures on display over at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, and it all has to do with air travel over to Hawaii.

The new exhibit is called Hawaii By Air, and it reveals the progress and changes in air travel between the mainland and one of the most remote spots on earth. Early flights are detailed and documented from the first flights that crossed the Pacific to the initial boom in island tourism. Learn how Inter-Island Airways made hopping between the islands a little bit easier and way more convenient than taking a boat between spots like Oahu and Maui.

World Cup fever may have taken over sports bars around the US for the last few weeks, but with the recent loss of Team USA to Belgium, American pride is refocusing for the Fourth of July holiday.

In the heat of that deciding match, however, a tweeted suggestion from The Wall Street Journal's Jon Ostrower lit a fire that continues to burn. The suggestion? To rename Washington DC's Reagan National Airport to Tim Howard Washington National Airport, in honor of the US team's star goalkeeper and his incredible 16 saves against Belgium in Tuesday's game.

Tax day is here, and you're probably excited...but not because you love sifting through receipts and credit card statements. You're excited because you're getting a fat refund. Probably. The economy may be on its way back up, but you should try to stretch that tax refund as far as you can...like with a little "you did a great job last year" tripa Tax Refund Vacation.

If the tax refund gods were kind to you this year then you’re probably feeling friendly when it comes to the folks that do all of that paper pushing and spreadsheet filtering down in Washington, DC. That’s why we suggest making a visit to Uncle Sam’s backyard with all those refund dollars to pay back the government for all it does for us—haha—with a visit to the nation’s capital and the Capitol.

The cherry blossoms have come and gone, but that doesn’t mean that taking in the views along the Potomac still isn’t worth your time. As far as getting to “the District,” it’s pretty darn easy thanks to Reagan National Airport and its proximity to all the city has to offer. Easy connections thanks to the area’s awesome Metro will have you downtown before you know it—no need for a taxi.

We checked out the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum when we were kids, and when we visited it recently—it looked exactly as we remembered it. Turns out that things haven’t really changed much since the place’s debut back in 1976, but thankfully that’s about to change as the place is undergoing a little bit of a 21st century facelift.

There will be some temporary closures of exhibits over the next two years, but it’s a small price to pay to get things looking shiny and new once again. Obviously history hasn’t really changed, but the curator folks are changing up what they’re showing off. Things from the Apollo moon landing will now be one of the main features that greet guests, while great goodies from the past like the Spirit of St. Louis, the Mercury capsule from the first Earth orbit, and an Apollo Lunar Module will all be some of the stuff on display.

You'd think, with Instagram celebrating its fourth birthday this year, that the limits of intriguing new accounts would be stretched. Alas, we still find new and interesting people to follow, and one such account is @usinterior. It's actually the official account of the US Department of the Interior.

They've been active on the app for nearly two years, but only now are they taking the step to get interactive, announcing a contest to join in their first Insta-Meet for the reopening of the Washington Monument on May 12. You see, the monument closed after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake shook the DC area in 2011. This caused cracks near the top of the monument, closing it indefinitely...or at least until May 12.

The opportunity to be among the first back into the national landmark sounds awesome, but there is a major catch:

We already let you know about the goings on at this year’s National Cherry Blossom Festival, and now we know all about the most important part of the festival. That’s because the National Park Service has run the data and reviewed the numbers, and they’re ready to make the prediction regarding the timing for this year’s peak bloom period.

Obviously there’s a little luck behind things in addition to the science and the skill, but for 2014 it sounds like they’re thinking that peak bloom will be between April 8 and April 12. That’s a little later than usual—blame it on the harsh winter?—as things usually reach their full flowering potential around April 8.

It seems that each and every week we hear about new restaurants hitting the airport dining scene, and this week is no exception. At this point you probably know that Sbarro and Starbucks are out in favor of some high end concourse cuisine, and that’s exactly what they’re getting over at Reagan National Airport’s Terminal A—the good stuff.

Fans of Top Chef and The Chew will want to head to the airport a little bit earlier than usual, as they’ll need time to check out one of the latest ventures from Carla Hall. It’ll be a little bit of time before things start serving up terminal treats, as it seems like the middle of 2015 is the target opening date.

Zookeepers at Washington DC'sNational Zoo, which literally shares a driveway with Jaunted's DC headquarters, have been doing their best to keep the public informed about the pair of baby lions born in late January to mother Nababiep. Medical exams of the cubs have revealed that they are "adorable" - that's an actual quote - and for the first few weeks fans from around the world could track the infants on the zoo's lion cam.

Recently, however, the lion cam feeds have gone dark in anticipation of another impending litter, this time to Nababiep's sister Shera. There's a more robust explanation of where each lioness hangs out, and how that influenced the decision to cut the feeds, here. But the short story is that - for now - the Internet has one less place with baby lions.